Looking for Nathan in Sheffield

Full Monty Audition, Lyceum: the queue limber up while waiting

STANDING in a queue, hoping to get a job – 15 years after The Full Monty. This was the scene on Saturday outside the Lyceum Theatre.

“It’s more nerve wracking for us than it is for them,” said David Barber, father of 13-year-old auditionee Joe.

“It’s a good experience for us,” said Joe. “You feel really nervous before but once you walk in it’s OK. Being from Sheffield, it would be an honour to play the role.”

Around 70 young actors are expected to audition for the role of Nathan in the stage production of the Full Monty at the Lyceum.

The actors, mostly from the Sheffield area, will take part in a series of auditions and script readings over the next few weeks, ready for taking to the stage next February as the generous but mildly embarrassed son of an ex-steelworking stripper.

“I think The Full Monty was an accurate picture of the people of Sheffield,” said Jay Olpin, also 13. “They may get knocked down and lose their jobs but they always come back. And now we’re going through another recession, so it’s a good time to bring the play back.”

The play of The Full Monty was adapted by the writer of the original screenplay, Simon Beaufoy, and after its world premiere in Sheffield will tour the UK in the spring. Four actors aged between 11 and 14 will play the role of Nathan, to allow for breaks during the tour.

Most of the boys taking auditions on Saturday morning were from Sheffield (with the Hunters Bar area particularly well represented) and some had their Sheffield United tops in their mother’s handbags ready for the match in the afternoon.

Like Amanda Smith, mother of Jason, who said: “Jason is a United fan, like Nathan. To me the film epitomises what Sheffield’s about, working class people surviving by doing a bit of this, a bit of that.”

Sheffield Theatres company manager Andrew Wilcox said the Nathan actors had to come across as Sheffielders. “I’m looking for someone authentic who I can really believe and who you can believe is related to the two actors.”

The boys all seemed to enjoy the audition process: after the tapping your partner’s knees warm-ups, there were scripts to read and stories of acting mishaps to tell and remember. The unCowell-like audition panel heard how one boy lost his breakfast all over his t-shirt on the way to an earlier audition and his father, reluctant to spend money visiting Next (on the mother of the actor’s advice), bought some pound shop air freshener instead, so ensuring his son cleared away the competition and got the part a week later.

The boys were from all stages of the acting ladder: some had only appeared in school plays before, others had already taken part in a handful of Sheffield Theatres productions.

Eventually, the majority of the morning’s group were told they could leave, but that’s part of the training of an actor, and several boys said they enjoyed the process itself and learned from it.

“It is hard for the lads who haven’t made it, but you have to explain why it is, and be honest with them, and they will accept it,” said Andrew Wilcox. “Sometimes it’s simply a matter of height, because all these boys are growing up and they’ll still need to look 11 or 12 on tour next spring.”

Jack Skelton was one of the actors going through to the next round, praised by Andrew for his Sheffield accent.

From Chapeltown, the 11-year-old had relatives in the steel industry in the past. Mum Sarah pointed out how she’d grown up near some of the film locations in northern Sheffield.

“I’m from Sheffield, and when I watched the film and saw the role of Nathan, I thought I’m a bit like that,” said Jack. “It’s a good film and shows Sheffield as it is – how everyone is friendly with each other. I think it’s good for the city.”

Jack was now excited about the next audition but was clearly taking a measured view of the whole process.

“I didn’t know how I’d get on. I said before, ‘If I come in with nowt and go out with nowt, it’s fine. But if I get something out of it, that’s good’.”

This website and its associated newspaper adheres to the Independent Press Standards Organisation's Editors' Code of Practice.
If you have a complaint about editorial content which relates to inaccuracy or intrusion, then contact the
Editor by clicking here.

If you remain dissatisfied with the response provided then you can contact the IPSO by
clicking here.

Sheffield Telegraph provides news, events and sport features from the Sheffield area. For the best up to date information relating to Sheffield and the surrounding areas visit us at Sheffield Telegraph regularly or bookmark this page.

For you to enjoy all the features of this website Sheffield Telegraph requires permission to use cookies.

Find Out More ▼

What is a Cookie?

What is a Flash Cookie?

Can I opt out of receiving Cookies?

About our Cookies

Cookies are small data files which are sent to your browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome etc) from a website you visit. They are stored on your electronic device.

This is a type of cookie which is collected by Adobe Flash media player (it is also called a Local Shared Object) - a piece of software you may already have on your electronic device to help you watch online videos and listen to podcasts.

Yes there are a number of options available, you can set your browser either to reject all cookies, to allow only "trusted" sites to set them, or to only accept them from the site you are currently on.

However, please note - if you block/delete all cookies, some features of our websites, such as remembering your login details, or the site branding for your local newspaper may not function as a result.

The types of cookies we, our ad network and technology partners use are listed below:

Revenue Science ►

A tool used by some of our advertisers to target adverts to you based on pages you have visited in the past. To opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Google Ads ►

Our sites contain advertising from Google; these use cookies to ensure you get adverts relevant to you. You can tailor the type of ads you receive by visiting here or to opt out of this type of targeting you can visit the 'Your Online Choices' website by clicking here.

Digital Analytics ►

This is used to help us identify unique visitors to our websites. This data is anonymous and we cannot use this to uniquely identify individuals and their usage of the sites.

Dart for Publishers ►

This comes from our ad serving technology and is used to track how many times you have seen a particular ad on our sites, so that you don't just see one advert but an even spread. This information is not used by us for any other type of audience recording or monitoring.

ComScore ►

ComScore monitor and externally verify our site traffic data for use within the advertising industry. Any data collected is anonymous statistical data and cannot be traced back to an individual.

Local Targeting ►

Our Classified websites (Photos, Motors, Jobs and Property Today) use cookies to ensure you get the correct local newspaper branding and content when you visit them. These cookies store no personally identifiable information.

Grapeshot ►

We use Grapeshot as a contextual targeting technology, allowing us to create custom groups of stories outside out of our usual site navigation. Grapeshot stores the categories of story you have been exposed to. Their privacy policy and opt out option can be accessed here.

Subscriptions Online ►

Our partner for Newspaper subscriptions online stores data from the forms you complete in these to increase the usability of the site and enhance user experience.

Add This ►

Add This provides the social networking widget found in many of our pages. This widget gives you the tools to bookmark our websites, blog, share, tweet and email our content to a friend.